Page:A Defence of Revealed Religion.pdf/29

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ETERNAL SUFFERING.
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fore, in taking a survey of things as they are, the feelings and inclinations must be regulated by the judgment. We do not believe in always looking at the dark side, but we shall make many a great mistake if we imagine that no dark side exists. Vice and crime and misery are in our midst, as foul plague-spots vitiating society, and if the disease is to be removed it must be grappled with, and before it can be fairly grappled with its magnitude must be known. All evils and dangers can be best avoided as they become well known, and hence it is of importance that, however painful the subject may be, we should endeavour to become possessed of clear and rational views upon the subject of the future lot of the wicked.

In the Voysey Case, the subject is alluded to in these terms: "Mankind are not in danger of endless suffering."

This proposition is put forward in opposition to the commonly received view which looks upon the endless suffering of the whole human race as the penalty inflicted for the sin of Adam. Viewed in this aspect, we do not believe that man is in danger of suffering at all. God creates men for heaven and not for hell; He intends them to be happy, not miserable; He appoints them to life, not death; and if man fails to realize this state, it is because he deliberately and of his own choice prefers the opposite one. Thus it is written in the holy Book, "For Thy pleasure they are and were created;" and the nature of the divine pleasure is de-